UN chief: Rising seas risk ‘death sentence’ for some nations

By EDITH M. LEDERER and JENNIFER McDERMOTT
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief is warning that global sea levels have risen faster and their relentless increase us putting countries like Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands at risk. He warns that it acutely endangers nearly 900 million people living in low coastal areas. In a grim speech to the Security Council’s first-ever meeting on the threat to international peace and security from rising sea levels, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared Tuesday that sea levels will rise significantly even if global warming is “miraculously” limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. He warns the Earth is more likely on a path to warming that amounts to “a death sentence” for countries vulnerable to that rise.